Animals have been fed “dry” and “wet” food compositions for many years. “Wet” food compositions are generally packaged in can-like containers and are considered “wet” in appearance because of the moisture contained therein. Two types of wet food products are generally known in the art. The first is known in the art as either a “minced” or “ground loaf” product. Loaf products are typically prepared by contacting a mixture of components under heat to produce an essentially homogeneous, intracellular honeycomb-type mass or “ground loaf.” The ground loaf mass is then packaged into a cylindrical container, such as a can. Upon packing, ground loaf assumes the shape of the container such that the ground loaf must be cut when serving to an animal. As a result of processing, ground loaf products exhibit a wide range of textural differences and loaf products generally do not mix well with other forms of foods, especially dry products.
Another type of wet product is generally known in the art as “chunk and gravy.” Chunk and gravy products comprise restructured meat pieces prepared by making a meat emulsion which is first extruded and formed or “set” by physical pressure or thermal energy such as cooking with steam, cooking in water, frying in oil, oven dry heat and the like. The product pieces are eventually mixed with a gravy or sauce in a container, usually a can, which is then seamed and sterilized. As opposed to ground loaf, chunk and gravy products have physically separate, discrete chunks as prepared. These discrete particles are present in the gravy-type liquid in the final container. When serving, chunk and gravy products flow out of the can and can be easily mixed with other dry products.
These types of wet pet food compositions generally require high amounts of protein to form the desired product type as the thermal processing “sets” the product through protein denaturation.
There is, therefore, a need in the art for improved methods of making a food composition comprising restructured meat pieces and meat analogue pieces. More specifically, there is a need in the art for a method of making aesthetically-pleasing restructured meat pieces and meat analogue pieces, where that method utilizes a gelation effect in the formation of restructured meat chunks to solidify protein/starch matrices, resulting in a process that is less dependent on protein content for structural integrity of the meat chunk.